Systems and methods for wirelessly determining accepted forms of payment

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed which may allow a merchant to wirelessly transmit accepted forms of payment using a beacon installed in the merchant location or near the merchant location. A consumer having a device capable of receiving the wireless transmission may receive the accepted forms of payment and have them displayed on a screen of the device. The device may also send the accepted forms of payment to a remote server that has issued the consumer a programmable credit card such that the remote server can program the credit card based on the forms of payment accepted by the merchant.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

Embodiments disclosed herein are related to systems and methods fordetermining accepted forms of payment based on a message received whenentering or within a reasonable proximity of the merchant.

Related Art

Consumers have many options when paying for items purchased at amerchant. Consumers may have on them at any time multiple forms ofpayment, such as one or more different credit cards, including creditcards offered by different credit card providers, debit cards,electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards and other state-fundedassistance. Moreover, consumers may be able to pay using near-fieldcommunications (NFC) or other wireless technologies. Further, consumersmay be able to pay for items using an online payment provider, such asPayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. While many consumers have one or moreof these forms of payment options available, most consumers do not haveall of these options available. Similarly, merchants typically acceptone or more of these forms of payment, but may not accept all of theseforms of payment. Consequently, situations may arise when a consumerattempts to purchase an item from the merchant but does not haveavailable any of the forms or payment accepted by the merchant Merchantsmay have and, in some areas, be required to posted a banner, marquee,sticker, and the like that displays the forms of payment that areaccepted. However these displays may not be easily visible andrecognized by the consumer, and may not always be up to date.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked system, consistent with someembodiments.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a computing system, consistent withsome embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a beacon, consistent with someembodiments.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a flow of determining accepted forms ofpayment from wirelessly-received information, consistent with someembodiments.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a flow of assigning at least oneaccepted form of payment to a programmable spending card, consistentwith some embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining acceptedforms of payment from wirelessly-received information, consistent withsome embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating assigning at least one accepted formof payment to a programmable spending card, consistent with someembodiments.

In the drawings, elements having the same designation have the same orsimilar functions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description specific details are set forth describingcertain embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in theart that the disclosed embodiments may be practiced without some or allof these specific details. The specific embodiments presented are meantto be illustrative, but not limiting. One skilled in the art may realizeother material that, although not specifically described herein, iswithin the scope and spirit of this disclosure.

There is a need for determining accepted forms of payment when enteringa merchant location or being within a close proximity thereto. Moreover,there is a need for the merchant to be able to provide a notification ofthe accepted forms of payment that is low cost and reliable.

Consistent with some embodiments, there is provided a system. The systemincludes one or more wireless transceivers configured to receivewirelessly transmitted information related to forms of payment acceptedby a merchant. The system also includes one or more processorsconfigured to process the received information to determine the forms ofpayment accepted by the merchant. The system further includes a displaydevice configured to display the determined forms of payment accepted bythe merchant.

Consistent with some embodiments, there is also provided a method. Themethod includes steps of wirelessly receiving information related toforms of payment accepted by a merchant, processing the receivedinformation to determine the forms of payment accepted by the merchant,and displaying the determined forms of payment accepted by the merchant.The method may be embodied in computer-readable media.

Consistent with some embodiments, there is further provided a method.The method includes steps of receiving forms of payment accepted by amerchant, assigning at least one of the forms of payment accepted by themerchant to a spending card associated with a consumer account,assigning a card number to the spending card corresponding to theassigned form of payment, and sending a notification and assigned cardnumber. The method may also be embodied in computer-readable media.

Embodiments consistent with this disclosure may allow a merchant to uselow power transmitting devices to transmit information to a consumerdevice that enables the consumer device to display accepted forms ofpayment to the consumer so that the consumer is able to determine theaccepted forms of payment as the enter or approach the merchant store.These and other embodiments will be described in further detail belowwith respect to the following figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked system 100, consistent withsome embodiments. System 100 includes a consumer computing device 102and a remote server 104 in communication over a network 106. Remoteserver 104 may be a payment service provider server that may bemaintained by a payment service provider, such as PayPal, Inc. of SanJose, Calif. Remote server 104 may be maintained by other serviceproviders in different embodiments. Remote server 104 may also bemaintained by an entity with which sensitive credentials and informationmay be exchanged with client computing device 102. Remote server 104 maybe more generally a web site, an online content manager, a serviceprovider, such as a bank, or other entity who provides content to a userrequiring user authentication or login.

Network 106, in one embodiment, may be implemented as a single networkor a combination of multiple networks. For example, in variousembodiments, network 106 may include the Internet and/or one or moreintranets, landline networks, wireless networks, and/or otherappropriate types of communication networks. In another example, thenetwork may comprise a wireless telecommunications network (e.g.,cellular phone network) adapted to communicate with other communicationnetworks, such as the Internet.

Consumer computing device 102, in one embodiment, may be implementedusing any appropriate combination of hardware and/or software configuredfor wired and/or wireless communication over network 106. For example,consumer computing device 102 may be implemented as a wireless telephone(e.g., smart phone), tablet, personal digital assistant (PDA), notebookcomputer, personal computer, a connected set-top box (STB) such asprovided by cable or satellite content providers, or a video game systemconsole, a head-mounted display (HMD) or other wearable computingdevice, including a wearable computing device having an eyeglassprojection screen, and/or various other generally known types ofcomputing devices.

As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 may include one or more beacons 108. Insome embodiments, beacons 108 may be installed at a merchant location,such as a store, restaurant, and the like. In some embodiments, beacons108 may be Bluetooth™ Low Energy (BLE) beacons. BLE is a technology thattransmits information at a frequency of about 2.4 GHz (about 2042-2480MHz) over forty (40) 2-MHz wide channels, and has a range of about 50meter or about 160 feet. Information transmitted according to the BLEprotocol may be transmitted at a rate of about 1 Mbit/s with anapplication throughput of about 0.27 Mbit/s. In some embodiments, BLEcommunications may be secured using 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard(AES) encryption with counter mode with a cipher block chaining messageauthentication code (CBC-MAC) and user defined security. Further, insome embodiments, BLE communications may utilize adaptive frequencyhopping, lazy acknowledgement, a 24-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC)and 32-bit message integrity check for robustness. Moreover, in someembodiments, BLE-capable devices may consume a fraction of the power ofstandard Bluetooth® devices due to the protocol allowing low dutycycles, and being designed for applications that may not requirecontinuous data transfer. Beacons 108 may transmit one or more sequencesof information such that when a device such as consumer computing device102 capable of receiving information from beacons 108 comes within therange of a beacon 108, the device may receive a transmission from abeacon 108 and be instructed to perform an action, such as display anadvertisement or display accepted forms of payment, or execute a paymentapplication.

Consumer computing device 102 may include any appropriate combination ofhardware and/or software having one or more processors and capable ofreading instructions stored on a tangible non-transitorymachine-readable medium for execution by the one or more processors.Consistent with some embodiments, consumer computing device 102 includesa machine-readable medium, such as a memory (not shown) that includesinstructions for execution by one or more processors (not shown) forcausing consumer computing device 102 to perform specific tasks. In someembodiments, the instructions may be executed by the one or moreprocessors in response to interaction by consumer 110. For example, suchinstructions may include browser application 112 such as a mobilebrowser application, which may be used to provide a user interface topermit consumer 110 to browse information available over network 106,including information hosted by remote server 104. For example, browserapplication 112 may be implemented as a web browser to view informationavailable over network 106. Browser application 112 may include agraphical user interface (GUI) that is configured to allow consumer 110to interface and communicate with remote server 104 or other serversmanaged by content providers or merchants via network 106. For example,consumer 110 may be able to access websites to find and purchase items,as well as access user account information or web content.

Consumer computing device 102 may also include an application thatdisplays accepted forms of payment 114. Forms of payment displayapplication 114 may be configured to receive one or more wirelesstransmissions from, for example, beacon 108 and display forms of paymentaccepted by a merchant associated with beacon 108 based on informationincluded in the wireless transmissions.

Consumer computing device 102 may also include a payment application 116that may be used by consumer 110 using consumer computing device 102 tomake a payment. In some embodiments, payment application 116 may beconfigured to make a payment using remote server 104 as a paymentprocessor. Consumer computing device 102 may include other applications118 as may be desired in one or more embodiments to provide additionalfeatures available to consumer 110, including accessing a user accountwith remote server 104. For example, applications 118 may includeinterfaces and communication protocols that allow the user to receiveand transmit information through network 106 and to remote server 104and other online sites. Applications 118 may also include securityapplications for implementing client-side security features,programmatic client applications for interfacing with appropriate APIsover network 106 or various other types of generally known programsand/or applications. Applications 116 may include mobile applicationsdownloaded and resident on consumer computing device 102 that enablesconsumer 110 to access content through the applications.

Remote server 104, according to some embodiments, may be maintained byan online payment provider, such as PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif.,which may provide processing for online financial and informationtransactions on behalf of consumer 110. Remote server 104 may include apayment application 120 that may facilitate processing payments forconsumer 110 to merchants, for example. In some embodiments, paymentapplication 120 may be configured to interface with payment application116 to receive payment details, user information, merchant information,and additional information for processing a payment on behalf ofconsumer 110. Remote server 104 may also include an account database 122that includes account information 124 for consumers having an account onremote server 104, such as consumer 110. In some embodiments, paymentapplication 120 may process payments based on information in accountinformation 124 of account database 122. Remote server 104 may includeother applications 126 and may also be in communication with one or moreexternal databases 128, that may provide additional information that maybe used by remote server 104. In some embodiments, databases 128 may bedatabases maintained by third parties, and may include third partyaccount information of consumer 110.

Although discussion has been made of applications and applications onconsumer computing device 102 and remote server 104, the applicationsmay also be, in some embodiments, modules. Module, as used herein, mayrefer to a software module that performs a function when executed by oneor more processors or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) orother circuit having memory and at least one processor for executinginstructions to perform a function, such as the functions described asbeing performed by the applications.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating computing system 200, which maycorrespond to either of consumer computing device 102 or remote server104, consistent with some embodiments. Computing system 200 may be amobile device such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, a personalcomputer, laptop computer, netbook, or tablet computer, set-top box,video game console, head-mounted display (HMD) or other wearablecomputing device as would be consistent with consumer computing device102. Further, computing system 200 may also be a server or one serveramongst a plurality of servers, as would be consistent with remoteserver 104. As shown in FIG. 2, computing system 200 includes a networkinterface component (NIC) 202 configured for communication with anetwork such as network 108 shown in FIG. 1. Consistent with someembodiments, NIC 202 includes a wireless communication component, suchas a wireless broadband component, a wireless satellite component, orvarious other types of wireless communication components including radiofrequency (RF), microwave frequency (MWF), and/or infrared (IR)components configured for communication with network 106. Consistentwith other embodiments, NIC 202 may be configured to interface with acoaxial cable, a fiber optic cable, a digital subscriber line (DSL)modem, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) modem, an Ethernetdevice, and/or various other types of wired and/or wireless networkcommunication devices adapted for communication with network 106.

Consistent with some embodiments, computing system 200 includes a systembus 204 for interconnecting various components within computing system200 and communicating information between the various components. Suchcomponents include a processing component 206, which may be one or moreprocessors, micro-controllers, graphics processing units (GPUs) ordigital signal processors (DSPs), and a memory component 208, which maycorrespond to a random access memory (RAM), an internal memorycomponent, a read-only memory (ROM), or an external or static optical,magnetic, or solid-state memory. Consistent with some embodiments,computing system 200 further includes a display component 210 fordisplaying information to a user of computing system 200. Displaycomponent 210 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, an organiclight emitting diode (OLED) screen (including active matrix AMOLEDscreens), an LED screen, a plasma display, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)display. Computing system 200 may also include an input component 212,allowing for a user of computing system 200, such as consumer 120, toinput information to computing system 200. Such information couldinclude payment information such as an amount required to complete atransaction, account information, authentication information such as acredential, or identification information. An input component 212 mayinclude, for example, a keyboard or key pad, whether physical orvirtual. Computing system 200 may further include a navigation controlcomponent 214, configured to allow a user to navigate along displaycomponent 210. Consistent with some embodiments, navigation controlcomponent 214 may be a mouse, a trackball, or other such device.Moreover, if device 200 includes a touch screen, display component 210,input component 212, and navigation control 214 may be a singleintegrated component, such as a capacitive sensor-based touch screen.

Computing system 200 may further include a location component 216 fordetermining a location of computing system 200. In some embodiments,location component 216 may correspond to a GPS transceiver that is incommunication with one or more GPS satellites. In other embodiments,location component 216 may be configured to determine a location ofcomputing system 200 by using an internet protocol (IP) address lookup,or by triangulating a position based on nearby telecommunications towersor wireless access points (WAPs). Location component 216 may be furtherconfigured to store a user-defined location in memory component 208 thatcan be transmitted to a third party for the purpose of identifying alocation of computing system 200. Computing system 200 may also includesensor components 218. Sensor components 218 provide sensorfunctionality, and may correspond to sensors built into consumercomputing device 102 or sensor peripherals coupled to consumer computingdevice 102. Sensor components 218 may include any sensory device thatcaptures information related to consumer 110 and/or consumer computingdevice 102 that may be associated with any actions that consumer 110performs using consumer computing device 102. Sensor components 218 mayinclude camera and imaging components, accelerometers, biometricreaders, GPS devices, motion capture devices, and other devices that arecapable of providing information about consumer computing device 102 orconsumer 110, or an environment therearound. Computing system 200 mayalso include one or more wireless transceivers 220 that may each includean antenna that is separable or integral and is capable of transmittingand receiving information according to one or more wireless networkprotocols, such as Wi-Fi™, 3G, 4G, HSDPA, LTE, RF, NFC, IEEE 802.11a, b,g, n, ac, or ad, Bluetooth®, BLE, WiMAX, ZigBee®, etc.

Computing system 200 may perform specific operations by processingcomponent 206 executing one or more sequences of instructions containedmemory component 208. In other embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may beused in place of or in combination with software instructions toimplement the present disclosure. Logic may be encoded in a computerreadable medium, which may refer to any medium that participates inproviding instructions to processing component 206 for execution,including memory component 208. Consistent with some embodiments, thecomputer readable medium is tangible and non-transitory. In variousimplementations, non-volatile media include optical or magnetic disks,volatile media includes dynamic memory, and transmission media includescoaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, including wires thatcomprise system bus 204. Some common forms of computer readable mediainclude, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetictape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punchcards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes,RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, orany other medium from which a computer is adapted to read.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, execution ofinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure may beperformed by computing system 200. In various other embodiments of thepresent disclosure, a plurality of computing systems 200 coupled by acommunication link 222 to network 108 (e.g., such as a LAN, WLAN, PTSN,and/or various other wired or wireless networks, includingtelecommunications, mobile, and cellular phone networks) may performinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure in coordinationwith one another. Computing system 200 may transmit and receivemessages, data and one or more data packets, information andinstructions, including one or more programs (i.e., application code)through communication link 222 and network interface component 202 andwireless transceiver 220. Received program code may be executed byprocessing component 206 as received and/or stored in memory component208.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a beacon 108, consistent with someembodiments. As shown in FIG. 3, beacon 108 includes a beacon hardwareinterface 300 having a device coupling link 302 that allows for directdata writing to beacon 108 to provide updates and other instructions.Beacon 108 also includes a system bus 304 for interconnecting variouscomponents within beacon 108 and communicating information between thevarious components. Such components include a processing component 306,which may be one or more processors, micro-controllers, graphicsprocessing units (GPUs) or digital signal processors (DSPs), a memorycomponent 208, firmware 310 and one or more wireless transceivers 312that may each include an antenna that is separable or integral and iscapable of transmitting and receiving information according to one ormore wireless network protocols, such as Wi-Fi™, 3G, 4G, HSDPA, LTE, RF,NFC, IEEE 802.11a, b, g, n, ac, or ad, Bluetooth®, BLE, WiMAX, ZigBee®,etc. Beacon 108 may also include a power source 314. Power source 314may be any power source capable of providing sufficient current to powerthe components of beacon 108. In some embodiments, power source 318 maybe a battery, such as a watch battery or button cell.

In some embodiments, beacon 108 may be configured to transmitinformation using wireless transceivers 312 based on instructions storedin memory 308 and/or firmware 310 executed by processing component 306.The instructions may be stored in memory 308 and/or firmware 310 bydirectly writing the instructions to memory 308 and/or firmware 310 overcommunication link 302 to beacon hardware interface 300 or by wirelesslyreceiving instructions by wireless transceivers 312. In someembodiments, beacon 108 may be configured to transmit informationrelated to forms of payment that are accepted by a merchant associatedwith beacon 108. In some embodiments, beacon 108 may also transmitinstructions that when received by consumer computing device 102 maycause forms of payment display application 114 to be executed byprocessing component 206 to cause accepted forms of payment to bedisplayed by display component 210 of consumer computing device 102.Further, beacon 108 may transfer instructions that, when received byconsumer computing device 102 cause payment application 116 to beexecuted by processing component to allow consumer 110 to authorize apayment to be processed by remote server 104. In some embodiments,wireless transceiver 312 may correspond to a BLE transceiver configuredto transmit and receive information according to the BLE protocol.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a flow of determining accepted forms ofpayment from wirelessly-received information, consistent with someembodiments. As shown in FIG. 4, beacon 108 may periodically transmitinformation related to forms of payment accepted at a merchant in whichbeacon 108 is located or associated with such that any device capable ofreceiving the information sent by beacon 108 may be able to receive thetransmitted information related to accepted forms of payment. In someembodiments, beacon 108 may be a BLE beacon, and may send out theinformation using the BLE protocol. When consumer 110 having consumercomputing device 102 comes within range of beacon 108, for example byentering a merchant location, consumer computing device 102 may receivethe information sent by beacon 108. Processing component 206 may processthe received information to determine the accepted forms of payment andforms of payment display application 114 may display the accepted formsof payment to consumer 110 on display component 210 of consumercomputing device 102.

In some embodiments, processing component 206 of consumer computingdevice 102 may also determine if the accepted forms of payment includepayment processing by remote server 104. For example, remote server 104may be a payment service processing server or provider, such as may beprovided by PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and the accepted forms ofpayment may include PayPal. When processing component 206 of consumercomputing device 102 determines that the accepted forms of paymentinclude payments processed by remote server 104, processing component206 may activate payment application 112 which may initiate anauthentication to remote server 104. Consumer 110 may then be able toauthorize a payment to the merchant using remote server 104 and, uponauthentication, remote server 104 may authorize the payment and send anotification of the payment to consumer computing device 102 for viewingby consumer 110. Embodiments consistent with FIG. 4 may allow a consumerto determine forms of payment accepted by a merchant by entering intothe merchant location and coming into range of a beacon that istransmitting information related to the accepted forms of payment.Similarly, the merchant may be able to notify consumers of the forms ofpayment they accept by installing a beacon and programming the beacon toperiodically transmit this information to consumers. Moreover, if thebeacon is a BLE beacon, the merchant is able to provide consumers withthis information using a low cost transmitter that may have a longbattery life.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a flow of assigning at least oneaccepted form of payment to a programmable spending card, consistentwith some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 5, beacon 108 may periodicallytransmit information related to forms of payment accepted at a merchantin which beacon 108 is located or associated with such that any devicecapable of receiving the information sent by beacon 108 may be able toreceive the transmitted information related to accepted forms ofpayment. In some embodiments, beacon 108 may be a BLE beacon, and maysend out the information using the BLE protocol. When consumer 110having consumer computing device 102 comes within range of beacon 108,for example by entering a merchant location, consumer computing device102 may receive the information sent by beacon 108. Processing component206 may process the received information to determine the accepted formsof payment and forms of payment display application 114 may display theaccepted forms of payment to consumer 110 on display component 210 ofconsumer computing device 102.

Network interface component 202 of consumer computing device 102 maythen send the accepted forms of payment to remote server 104. In someembodiments, consumer 110 may be required to authenticate to remoteserver 104 in order to send the accepted forms of payment. Suchauthentication may be initiated by payment application 116 and/or otherapplications 118. Moreover, in some embodiments, the sending of acceptedforms of payment, including any required authentication, may beautomatically performed by consumer computing device 102 after receivingthe information related to the accepted forms of payment from beacon108. When remote server 104 receives the accepted forms of payment fromconsumer computing device 102, remote server 104 may assign one or moreof the accepted forms of payment to a programmable spending cardassociated with consumer 110, issued by remote server 104, and tied toan account on remote server 104 of consumer 110.

In some embodiments, the programmable spending card may be programmableto have any reserved card number that, when processed, may be associatedwith a consumer 110 account on remote server 104. In some embodiments,the programmable spending card may have a particular 10 digit numberassociated with an account of consumer 110, wherein the number can beprepended based on the particular forms of payment accepted by themerchant and appended with extra digits to meet the required number ofdigits for a particular form of payment. Different credit card companiesmay have different Issuer Identification Numbers (IINs) that uniquelyidentify a credit card with a specific credit card issuer and havedifferent lengths. For example, Visa® may have an IIN that includes a 4as a leading number and a number length of 13 or 16 digits, whileMasterCard® may have an IIN that includes leading digits that arebetween 51-55 and a number length of 16 digits and American Express mayhave an IIN that includes leading digits that are either 34 or 37 and anumber length of 15 digits. Consequently, when programming theprogrammable spending card, remote server 104 may program the card tohave an IIN that corresponds to at least one of the accepted forms ofpayment so that consumer 110 can use the spending card at the merchantIn some embodiments, consumer 110 may not have a physical programmablespending card, but instead may have a virtual programmable card that mayinclude just numbers that consumer 110 can enter or present to merchantto authorize a payment. Moreover, payment application 116 may beconfigured to receive an assigned card number from remote server 104 andgenerate a bar code or Quick Response (QR) code for display by displaycomponent 210 of consumer computing device 102 and scanning by merchant.

Consequently, embodiments consistent with FIG. 5 may allow a consumer tobe assigned with a programmable credit card that can be programmed basedon the forms of payment accepted by a merchant as informed to theconsumer through a beacon and provided to the issuer of the programmablecredit card from the consumer computing device 102.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining acceptedforms of payment from wirelessly-received information, consistent withsome embodiments. For the purpose of illustration, FIG. 6 may bedescribed with reference to any of FIGS. 1-4. The method shown in FIG. 6may be embodied in computer-readable instructions for execution by oneor more processors such that the steps of the method may be performed byconsumer computing device 102. As shown in FIG. 6, consumer computingdevice 102 may wirelessly receive information related to accepted formsof payment (602). In some embodiments, the wirelessly sent informationmay be sent by beacon 108 that may be installed in or near a merchantlocation such that when consumer computing device 102 comes within rangeof beacon 108, consumer computing device 102 may receive the transmittedinformation. Consumer computing device 102 may then process the receivedinformation to determine the forms of payment accepted by the merchant(604). In some embodiments, processing component 206 may process thereceived information based on instructions stored in memory 208.Consumer computing device 102 may then display the accepted forms ofpayment on display component 210 (606). In some embodiments, acceptedforms of payment display application 114 may be executed by processingcomponent 206 to cause display component 210 to display the acceptedforms of payment on consumer computing device 102 to consumer 110.

Processing component 206 may also determine if the accepted forms ofpayment include payments processed by remote server 104 (608). When theaccepted forms of payment do not include payments processed by remoteserver 104, consumer computing device 102 may just continue to displaythe accepted forms of payment to consumer 110 (606). When the acceptedforms of payment include payments processed by remote server 104,processing component 206 may execute payment application 116 to pay foritems purchased at the merchant location using payments processed byremote server 104 (610). Payment application 116 may then send anauthentication request to remote server 104 (612) for authenticatingconsumer computing device 102 and consumer 110 to remote server 104.Once consumer 110 has authenticated to remote server 104, consumer 110may be able to enter in information such as an item, item number,quantity, price, and the like, or have them entered automatically byscanning a bar code using a scanning application such as RedLaser™. Thisinformation may also be sent to remote server 104 by payment application116 of client computing device 102. Consumer 110 may then be able toauthorize a payment to be made by remote server 104 to the merchant forthe item.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating assigning at least one accepted formof payment to a programmable spending card, consistent with someembodiments. For the purpose of illustration, FIG. 7 may be describedwith reference to any of FIGS. 1-3 and 5. The method shown in FIG. 7 maybe embodied in computer-readable instructions for execution by one ormore processors such that the steps of the method may be performed byremote server 104. As shown in FIG. 7, remote server 104 may receive oneor more accepted forms of payment (702). In some embodiments, the one ormore accepted forms of payment may be received from consumer computingdevice 102 based on information wireless transmitted to consumercomputing device 102 by a beacon 108 associated with a merchant. Basedon the received accepted forms of payment, remote server 104 may assignat least one of the accepted forms of payment to a programmable spendingcard associated with consumer 110 (704).

Based on the at least one accepted form of payment assigned to theprogrammable spending card, remote server 104 may then assign a cardnumber corresponding to the at least one of the accepted forms ofpayment (706). In some embodiments, the programmable spending card maybe programmable to have any reserved card number that, when processed,may be associated with a consumer 110 account on remote server 104. Insome embodiments, the programmable spending card may have a particularnumber associated with an account of consumer 110, wherein the numbercan be prepended and appended based on the assigned form of payment.Remote server 104 may then send the assigned form of payment along withan associated card number (708). In some embodiments, the programmablecard may have a network interface component and may be configured toreceive the send card number. In some embodiments, consumer 110 may nothave a physical programmable spending card, but instead may have avirtual programmable card that may include just numbers that consumer110 can enter or present to merchant to authorize a payment. Moreover,payment application 116 may be configured to receive an assigned cardnumber from remote server 104 and generate a bar code or Quick Response(QR) code for display by display component 210 of consumer computingdevice 102 and scanning by merchant.

After consumer 110 has used the assigned form of payment with theassigned card number for payment, remote server 104 may receive apayment request associated with the card number (710). Processingcomponent 206 may execute instructions stored in memory 208 forinitiating payment application 120 which may match the received cardnumber and the payment request to an account associated with consumer110 and stored in account information 124 of account database 122.Remote server 104 may then authorize the payment from the consumeraccount (712).

Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as programcode and/or data, may be stored on one or more machine-readable mediums,including non-transitory machine-readable medium. It is alsocontemplated that software identified herein may be implemented usingone or more general purpose or specific purpose computers and/orcomputer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Where applicable, theordering of various steps described herein may be changed, combined intocomposite steps, and/or separated into sub-steps to provide featuresdescribed herein.

Embodiments described herein may allow a consumer to determine forms ofpayment accepted by a merchant by entering into the merchant locationand coming into range of a beacon that is wirelessly transmittinginformation related to the accepted forms of payment. Embodimentsdescribed herein may also allow merchant to notify consumers of theforms of payment they accept by installing a beacon and programming thebeacon to periodically transmit this information to consumers.Embodiments described herein may further allow a consumer to be assigneda programmable credit card that can be programmed based on the forms ofpayment accepted by a merchant as informed to the consumer through abeacon and provided to the issuer of the programmable credit card. Theexamples provided above are exemplary only and are not intended to belimiting. One skilled in the art may readily devise other systemsconsistent with the disclosed embodiments which are intended to bewithin the scope of this disclosure. As such, the application is limitedonly by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A consumer computing device, the computing devicecomprising: a non-transitory memory; one or more wireless transceivers;a display device; and one or more hardware processors coupled to thenon-transitory memory, the one or more wireless transceivers, and thedisplay device, the one or more hardware processors configured to readinstructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the computingdevice, when the computing device comes within range of a beacon deviceassociated with a merchant, to automatically perform operationscomprising: receiving, using the one or more wireless transceivers, alisting of types of each form of payment accepted by the merchant andbroadcast by the beacon device associated with the merchant; sending, toa remote server of a payment service processor, an indication of thetypes of each form of payment accepted by the merchant; receiving, fromthe remote server, a card number assigned to a programmable spendingcard based on the types of each form of payment accepted by themerchant; and programming the programmable spending card with the cardnumber.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more wirelesstransceivers comprise a Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) transceiver, and thelisting of the types of each form of payment accepted by the merchantare transmitted according to a BLE protocol.
 3. The computing device ofclaim 1, wherein the types of each form of payment accepted by themerchant comprise at least one type selected from a group of typesconsisting of cash, checks, credit cards, and payments processed by anonline payment service processor.
 4. The computing device of claim 1,wherein the programmable spending card is a virtual spending card. 5.The computing device of claim 1, wherein: the operations furthercomprise authorizing a payment to the merchant using the card number. 6.The computing device of claim 5, wherein authorizing the paymentcomprises displaying a bar code or quick response (QR) code on a displaycomponent of the computing device.
 7. A method comprising: when aconsumer computing device comes within range of a beacon deviceassociated with a merchant, automatically performing by the consumercomputing device: receiving, by one or more wireless transceivers of theconsumer computing device, a listing of types of each form of paymentaccepted by the merchant being broadcast by the beacon device associatedwith the merchant; sending, to a remote server of a payment serviceprocessor, an indication of the types of each form of payment acceptedby the merchant; receiving, from the remote server, a card numberassigned to a programmable spending card based on the types of each formof payment accepted by the merchant; programming the programmablespending card with the card number.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinwirelessly receiving the listing of the types of each form of paymentaccepted by a merchant comprises receiving information transmittedaccording to a Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) protocol by the beacondevice.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the types of each form ofpayment accepted by the merchant comprises at least one type selectedfrom a group of types consisting of cash, checks, credit cards, andpayments processed by an online payment service processor.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the credit cards comprise credit cards issuedby at least one credit card issuer.
 11. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising: authorizing a payment to the merchant using the card number.12. The method of claim 11, wherein authorizing the payment comprisesdisplaying a bar code or quick response (QR) code on a display componentof the consumer computing device.
 13. A method comprising: receiving, bya server and from a consumer computing device, an indication of types ofeach form of payment accepted by a merchant; assigning, by the server,at least one form of payment corresponding to the types of each form ofpayment accepted by the merchant to a programmable spending cardassociated with a consumer account; assigning, by the server, a cardnumber to the spending card corresponding to the assigned form ofpayment; programming, by the server using the consumer computing device,the programmable spending card with the assigned card number; andsending, by the server, a notification and the assigned card number tothe consumer computing device.
 14. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising: receiving, by the server, a payment request associated withthe assigned card number; automatically executing, by the server, apayment application in response to receiving the payment request;authorizing, by the server, the payment request; and fulfilling, by theserver, the payment request from the consumer account.
 15. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the consumer computing device receives a listing ofthe types of each form of payment accepted by the merchant from a beacondevice associated with the merchant.
 16. The method of claim 15, whereinthe listing of the types of each form of payment are wirelesslycommunicated between the consumer computing device and the beacon deviceaccording to a Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) protocol, and the beacondevice is a BLE beacon.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein assigningthe card number to the programmable spending card comprises assigningthe card number based on a predetermined leading digit and number lengthof card numbers associated with of the assigned form of payment.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the assigned form of payment comprises acredit card.
 19. The method of claim 13, wherein sending the assignedcard number comprises sending the assigned card number to theprogrammable spending card.
 20. The method of claim 13, wherein sendingthe assigned card number comprises sending the assigned card number, asa bar or quick response (QR) code, to the consumer computing deviceassociated with the consumer account to program a virtual programmablespending card.